Black BC: A History of the Black Experience at Boston College

Black BC Walking Tour is an interactive tour that allows online and mobile users to discover and explore black BC’s complex history on campus, in Boston, and in the nation. It mines anecdotal and informal resources as well as BC archives to commemorate the presence and contributions of black BC, and to document how this community participates in Boston’s black communities. The site is also a resource for BC students, faculty, staff, alums, and scholars who conduct research on race.

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April 9, 1968 – One day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., BC holds a memorial service on Bapst Lawn and cancels classes to encourage students to attend a demonstration from Boston Common to Post Office Square. This event gathers…

19 October 2006 - Students and administrators attend rallies held in the Quad (space between Lyons, Gasson, Devlin, and CSOM) and community meetings to address a lack of protocol for hate crimes. Fliers that promoted white supremacy were found in…

10 June 2020 – Facing outward toward Commonwealth Avenue, a crowd of about 100 protesters, including Boston College students and Jesuits, covered the lawn of St. Ignatius Church on Sunday afternoon. At the demonstration, organized by students from…

September 1933 – Casper Augustus Ferguson became Boston College’s first African-American graduate on a hot, overcast afternoon on Alumni Field in June 1937. […] Ferguson commuted to Chestnut Hill by streetcar in the morning, and after the…

1937: Lou Montgomery (BC ’41) became BC’s first black athlete as a running back for the football team” (Allie Weiskopf, "Ahead of their time," The Heights)

16 October 2017 - Two students found their “Black Lives Matters” signs vandalized in Roncalli. The same weekend, a screenshot of a Snapchat comparing Black slaves to a burnt sandwich circulated through the student body. Students gathered in O'Neill…

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